10.30.2011

So, yes, we're home. Nope, we still don't have an answer as to what is going on with Jenny Kate.

I guess I should start with a really watered down version of what in the world landed us in the hospital in the first place. For some this may be TMI, but I know some of you want to know the story. If you don't like diaper talk, stop reading now. There's your warning. :)

Jenny Kate started having diarrhea last Friday (9 days ago). We really started paying attention on Saturday when I realized that in fact it was her fifth poopy diaper and the day wasn't over. Saturday night and Sunday morning she was running a fever of about 101 and we decided if she was still running a fever Monday morning she would go in to see the doctor. Saturday night she also had a tiny bid of blood in her stool so we thought maybe she was having an allergic reaction to the squash she had been eating for the past two days. We stopped all baby food to rule that out.

Sunday she was kind of pitiful and still having issues so we thought maybe she had a stomach virus. Monday her fever was gone but she wouldn't really drink her bottle (which is totally unlike her) so Monday night we decided that if she didn't want to eat Tuesday morning I would take her to the doctor. I noticed Monday that her bottom eye teeth were trying to poke through, so we decided maybe what we were dealing with was a teething issue. Those were the WORST teeth for Derrick, so maybe they're torturing Jenny Kate too. (Strange teeth to be the first ones, huh?)

Anyway, Tuesday in the wee hours of the morning Jenny Kate woke up (with a terrible diaper, of course) ready to eat. All day Tuesday she wanted to eat, so again I didn't take her to the doctor. Wednesday morning she woke up, drank her bottle, and started screaming. We couldn't get her to calm down until finally she went to the bathroom. This time there was more blood. We were supposed to be headed to Charlotte for her DOC Band adjustment, but instead we went to the pediatrician's office.

At this point she had been impossible to keep clean and dry at all for about five days so you can't even imagine how terrible her diaper rash was. I feel terrible that it took this long for me to actually get her in to see the doctor, but honestly, we kept thinking oh, it must be this, or if she's still doing ..... tomorrow then we'll take her in, then she'd stop doing that so we thought it was getting better. And really, this time of year and having a little baby and a heart baby, the doctor's office is more of a risk than anything unless it's absolutely necessary. Well, Wednesday morning it became necessary.

The doctor checked her out and said that because of her age and how long she'd been having diarrhea, she was on the fence about admitting her. We talked a little more and decided that would be the best option. So off to the hospital we went. {And a ridiculous side note...D stayed with Justin's aunt and uncle who were visiting from TN while we took JK to the doctor. They called us when we were on the way to pick him up and told us he had thrown up! OMG! Turns out that he'd probably had a few too many cookies and was fine, but we took him with us to the hospital just in case he was getting JK's mess too! Ha!}

At the hospital my very first concern was getting her some super awesome diaper rash cream. Thankfully they gave us some and we could start the mending process for that. Seriously, it still makes me hurt looking at it. I think the aftermath of childbirth comes second to how that must feel.

Since Jenny Kate had an "unknown" reason for blood in her stool, she was on "contact precaution" at the hospital. I kind of got a kick out of that. Everyone came in her room with a blue gown on and she got her very own stethoscope as to not contaminate anyone else, and she and Derrick were not allowed to go to the playroom. I'm sure she was bummed about that. I totally understand why, but I kind of think that if she were contagious that one of us would have caught whatever it is by now. I agree that we should be better safe than sorry but it was really quite funny.

So they did an ultrasound to check for intussusception, which is where part of the bowel 'telescopes' into itself. That came back negative, but they said it could possibly still be that even if it wasn't caught during the ultrasound. If it was/is, then it was correcting itself so it was/is ok. They also did lab cultures to test for e coli, salmonella, and all of those other lovely bacteria that could potentially be causing the issues. Most of the day Wednesday she continued to have blood in her stools and she was pretty miserable. We did get a few smiles of her which are what you saw in this post. Those were a rarity this week so I'm glad I caught some on camera.

We hung out in the hospital Wednesday night and Thursday afternoon they sent us home. They told us that it would be a few days before the labs were back and that we may never know what's caused all of this. They told us that if she was still having the same issues in a WEEK that we..I guess would test further? I don't even remember what they said. But that would be a total of almost two weeks of this agony before anything else was done. That can't be healthy on a whole lot of levels. They did tell us to follow up with our pediatrician on Friday. Thankfully.

Friday we went in for a follow up and Dr. B (who was out the day she was admitted) said that we will not "just wait and see what happens." Thank you! He checked her over, gave us some burn cream for her poor tush, and told us if this wasn't completely gone by Monday and if the labs came back negative that we were being referred to a GI doctor.

Well, it's Sunday. It's not better. Justin just got off the phone with the hospital and all of her labs came back negative. Looks like we're going to see a GI doc. I'm PRAYING that they figure out what's wrong with our girl. It's mighty hard to watch her in pain and not be able to do anything about it. She's usually such a happy girl and there are some times where she's in pure agony. I'm not sure how much more of this my heart can take.

I'm sorry this was so long. But there you have it. The past week summed up in about 8,000 words. :) If you made it this far you deserve a picture.

I know this is a terrible, terrible picture, but we thought this was so funny. I was feeding Jenny Kate the other night and Derrick had to feed his baby too. Ha! He's gonna be a good daddy, you just wait. And they're both totally engrossed in Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. Oh, my!

10.27.2011

Wow, how easy it is to forget how draining it is to spend the night in the hospital...and how GREAT it feels to be home, even after just one night.

Here are a few pics I couldn't help but post. We have a follow up with JK's pediatrician in the morning and I'll give some details of what's going on with our girl. Thanks so much for the prayers for her!! We appreciate them so much!!

Mickey Mouse Clubhouse time. They BOTH love it!

They're a team, that's for sure.

Until Derrick got annoyed with Jenny Kate touching him. Already. :)

Now since the kids are finally settled, I'm off to sleep in my own bed. Ahhhh..... :)

10.26.2011

Yep. Jenny Kate decided to throw us for a loop and get admitted to the hospital. She's been having some major tummy issues for about 5 days. First we thought she had a stomach virus, then we thought it was teething, and now we're at a total loss. We took her to the doctor this morning and she thought the best thing to do was admit her so they could run some labs and figure out what's wrong with our girl. As of right now they've ruled out an obstruction so we're waiting on labs to find out what's causing this mess.

Praying they figure out something soon so we can get this girl well and get outta here! :)

10.24.2011

Birthdays are a big deal around here. A big, big deal! So since they're such a big deal, I decided that we should be celebrating half birthdays too!

Derrick turned TWO & a HALF on Thursday!

My, oh my where has the time gone?!

He got out of bed Thursday morning telling me that it was time for his birthday party. Poor thing. It's a good thing he doesn't completely understand that because he would have been a little disappointed! :)

No birthday party, just cake.

And apparently, cake was enough.

Now this was his cake, so I let him decorated it however he wanted.

It was an eat-at-your-own-risk kind of cake.

For real.

I asked if I could help make the cake a little more, you know, presentable?

Afterall, I had to make sure Derrick and I were NOT going to be the only ones eating this thing!

He was ready for cake!

Jenny Kate wasn't sure what all of the excitement was about.

Before we could dig in, D had a little more decorating to do.

He carefully placed the gummy bears on his cake. (Poor guy kept calling them vitamins! What kid of message are we sending our children feeding them gummy bear vitamins?! :)

Jenny Kate was getting super excited about the cake now!

A little more...

And by this point he had consumed so much sugar that he could hardly stand it!

So he got this decorating over with the easy way.

D made the cake absolutely perfect!

His final product...

When it was finally time to eat the cake,

all he wanted were the "vitamins" on top. I guess he knows what's under all of that icing!

Mom, Elizabeth, Justin....You had no idea what you were eating, did you?! ;)

10.19.2011

Ja, Ja, Ja, Ja, Ja, Ja, Ja, Jenny Kate!! Ja, Ja, Ja,, Jenny Kate! (That's our song. :) You are FIVE months old today!! Girl, the time has flown by so quickly that I missed doing your four month update! I know, I know. I'm so sorry. So this update is is a little combo of what you've been doing for the past two months. Hold on to your pants because you have changed SO much since your three month update!

You weigh around 12 1/2 pounds now. You can still wear some of your 0-3 month clothes, but you're wearing 3-6 month ones too. You're still wearing your size 2 diapers and I've had no luck keeping shoes on you and I haven't tried any lately so I'm really not sure what size shoe you're wearing. I think size one. You drink about 8 ounces four times a day and you usually sleep for about 12 hours at night. I'm so, so glad you sleep all night!

You LOVE to laugh! You are a smiley, giggly girl and I love it! I hope you stay that way. You seem like such a happy girl (except when you're not happy because then you're really not happy!! Ha!).

You absolutely, head over heals, love your brother. You're always watching him, touching him, smiling and laughing at him. You just can't get enough of him. And he can't get enough of you either, girl. He loves you so much! By the time you read this you'll probably find that hard to believe, but I'm here to tell you, he LOVES you!

You're rolling over!

You immediately roll over as soon as we lay you down. You can't roll back over, but you're definitely a pro at getting on your tummy.

You are almost sitting all by yourself. You can prop sit, but you haven't mastered the balancing act that it takes to lift your hands off the floor. You're really, really close.

You're ready to stand. I think you want to just skip all the baby stuff and go right to running with Derrick. Slow down girl, I can't let you grow up quite so fast! You have strong little legs and love it when we help you stand.

You're doing pretty well with your DOC band. Much better than we thought you would. Sleeping is when you have the real issues, but most of the time even then it doesn't seem to bother you.

Girl, you've graduated to once a week therapy! Oh how happy I was when they told us we didn't have to come twice a week anymore! Great work, chica!

You've gotten a tad better with napping. The problem is that you like to get up from your morning nap about an hour before Derrick is ready to take his nap. Then you're not ready to go to sleep while he's sleeping. That makes it a little tough for me, but I'll take it! I love that we're able to spend some time together with just the two of us. :)

You cry as soon as we walk in your room. You know it's time to go to sleep when we go in there. Even when you're super sleepy you cry when we put you in your crib. Rocking or holding you doesn't even help. You just have to cry yourself to sleep. There's nothing we can do about it. I guess you just don't know what to do with yourself when you're sleepy, but I hope you grow out of that soon!

You LOVE bath time! You start kicking your feet and squealing when I start the bath water. Bathing is your second favorite activity.

Your very favorite thing to do is chew on your feet!! I think you would have your feet in your mouth every second of the day if you could. If you can reach them you're pulling them in your mouth.

You've started eating solids! You absolutely hated the rice cereal. HATED it. You love to eat though! We tried green beans and you were sold! You've had green beans, apples, peas, and peaches. You're a great eater and sometimes you panic between bites because the spoon isn't at your mouth waiting when you've swallowed what's in your mouth. You're such a silly girl!

You're starting to notice when I'm not holding you. You don't care if someone else holds you, but if I walk by you or if you see me walking away you'll whine a little. I think it's funny and sweet and it seems crazy that you're noticing that already. I think you're really going to be a daddy's girl, but for right now you're kind of a mama's girl. I'll take it while I can because I know you'll turn on me because you'll be able to get anything you want out of your daddy!

Girlfriend, you are an awesome little girl! We love you so, so much and can hardly remember life before you. You round out our little family just perfectly. You're feisty, funny, and you know what you want, but you sure are a sweet girl. We love to watch the new things you're learning and doing and can't wait to see the little girl you're going to become. (But please, not so fast!) Happy five months, girlfriend!! We love you to the moon and back!!

10.10.2011

We've been loving this beautiful weather, spending as much time outside as we can.

I LOVE the change of seasons, although fall and spring seem a little short around here. We're talking advantage of the little bit of fall we're having.

Derrick would spend every single day for hours on end using this sprayer if we'd let him. We thought it was an interesting toy when Mamaw gave it to D, but it has turned into his absolute favorite thing to do.